Employess at Encompass TeleServices Inc.'s call center in Beaverton
showed up to work today to find managers boxing up their belongings
and leaving, according to three workers I interviewed. Trainings were
canceled and "real-time monitors" (supervisors) sent home. One facilitator said he learned to his surprise that his
health insurance coverage had been cancelled effective Thursday.

Yet
nothing official was announced. No word on whether the company plans
layoffs, a closure, or just downsizing. The center fields customer
service calls for T-Mobile USA Inc., and the calls kept coming in.

"Itâ€™s
basically a roomful of 200 people just sitting there not monitored right
now," one worker told me. "All supervisors have packed up."

Customer
service reps said they were left in the lurch to filter out rumors and
hit up who they could for info. "Itâ€™s like one big unofficial thing,"
said another employee. "Actually it's been one big unofficial leak."

Encompass
president Patrick Boyle, reportedly seen at the call center today, did not return phone calls left with his
attorney. But while all this was going on in Beaverton, an attorney
representing the company left a big clue as to what might be happening
in U.S. District Court in Portland. Encompass has been embroiled in a
bitter shareholders' lawsuit since 2004. The case is scheduled to go to
trail in April. But today, attorney Matthew Levin filed a request to
stop representing Encompass and its subsidiary, Savant Call Center Associates Inc.,
saying, "ETI and Savant have failed to meet their payment obligations
... and they have indicated that they will be unable to do so in the
future because they have lost almost all of their business."

Savant operates a call center near Encompass. Levin's firm
is at least the second to withdraw from representing Encompass in the
case, court records show.

What happens next? Officials at the Oregon Dislocated
Worker Unit, which helps workers in large layoffs, say they have not received
60-days notice of any call-center closure. Such notice is required by the federal Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act when a closure affects more than 50 workers. For now, at least
one Encompass facilitator plans to go into work Monday, hoping to find
out whether he has a job or needs to file for unemployment. "We just
don't know what is happening," this employee said. "Theyâ€™ve got to tell
us something."

Do you have any information? Comments? E-mail brenthunsberger@news.oregonian.com and I'll post them.

UPDATE: Levin's motion for withdrawal is attached. Two employees e-mailed me this weekend to say that a member of upper management called a meeting Saturday and basically said that the center will not be closing.

Michael Boyle, son of Encompass president Patrick Boyle and company co-founder, spoke with me Monday and said that the call center will not be closing and workers will get paid tomorrow.

"We owed the law firm a lot of money," he said. "That in no way means the employees arenâ€™t going to get paid (tomorrow)."

He said the company's expenses have exceeded revenues for the past 10 months, adding "thatâ€™s a losing proposition, obviously." He said the company recently cancelled its health insurance coverage for employees because its premiums became too expensive.

He said his father has considered both selling the company and seeking protection under federal bankruptcy laws, but that no decision has been made in either regard. He said any layoff or closure would be done in compliance with the federal WARN act, which requires 60 days notice. "My father would explore every option he could before he should shut
down these companies, and if he shut down heâ€™d do it correctly," Mike
Boyle said.

Mike Boyle made other allegations about factors that led to Friday's bizarre scene at the call center. I'm trying to confirm those allegations independently. Please check back here for more updates.

James Larsen of Portland writes:

I was supposed to be hired with this company only to receive every other day (I call every 2 days) that I call that no training has been scheduled yet. I was supposed to start the 29th of January. I had fallen very ill when I was supposed to take drug test and so the recruiting manger was kind enough to push the date of when I was supposed to do it. Well as circumstances go I ran into trouble trying to do the drug test and called and told her about it and asked if we could reschedule this since I was having some troubles. That was Monday that I had called, finally Friday she called and asked if I had taken the drug test. I was almost tempted to say didn't you listen to my message on Monday but you never say that to a potential employer unless you don't want to work there. To make a long story short I'm mad that she just kept leading me on making me think that I was going to be working for the company when she knew that the company might be going belly up. It shows that Encompass is immature in handling situations and that they should tell their potential employees that they may never be hired and stop leading them on. Give us the truth and not half lies to lead us on with whats really going on. Thank you for your time in reading.

Miguel Guerra writes:

Encompass does nothing but treat their employees like dirt. I worked there for 3 years only to hit the glass ceiling & they would not promote me at all even after I had tried 8 times to get a promotion with no success. I found out they promoted their 'favorite' employees & had no regard for how they treated me. My morale had sunk to an all time low when they denied me my paid vacation & I had non-refundable airline tickets. I was so furious that I wanted to quit on the spot. The company then claimed "we care about you" and "we don't want you to quit". They then crossed the line when they let me go after claiming I hung up on a customer.